3. Quiet Time
Check-in Review AOD Relationships
Review
Four Characteristics
Continuum
Emotions & Addiction Presentation
4. Name
Feeling
Last use
12 step meetings? What happened?
Who attended a meeting?
If you did not attend both meetings
• Did you think about it?
• What prevented your attendance?
What can you do differently this week?
Success with last week’s recovery tool
5. If you don’t manage your
emotions, they will manage you!
13. A preventable and treatable
brain disease influenced by a
complex set of behaviors that
may be the result of genetic,
biological, psychosocial, and
environmental interactions
14. Our emotions play a (big!) part in
why addictions are so powerful
Our body is wired with a reward
and punishment system to guide
our behavior
Drugs of abuse “hijack” this system,
confusing the drug’s reward &
punishment with our bodies own
chemicals
15. Our most basic drives
Hunger and food seeking
Pleasure and reproduction
Fight/Flight survival
Cravings
Based in the same part of the brain
affected by ALL drugs of abuse
Addiction imitates our basic drives
16. Which of the seven basic
emotions trigger cravings for you
most often?
Does one emotion show up more
in your life than any other
feeling?
Which emotion is your primary
feeling?
17. There is an “emotional neural
network” implicated in human
drug abuse.
18.
19. This system is concerned with
visceral and emotional behavior,
with primal urges and primal
moods.
It causes the organism to
recognize a reward, and work for
it; to recognize punishment, and
try to avoid it.
20. Drugs can interact with systems
regulating these basic drive states
through effects on receptors in the brain
and neural circuitry
Drugs can capture control of brain
mechanisms that control motivations and
emotions (i.e., Basic drives, such as anger,
fear, anxiety, pain, and depression).
21. Dopamine, one example of a
neurotransmitter, is correlated with:
“highs” elicited by addictive drugs (i.e.
cocaine)
cravings in withdrawal
Dopamine is activated in a “reward
system”
Drugs of abuse activate the same reward
system, - increasing or decreasing
dopamine
Learned emotional reactions are created
contributing to drug addiction…
22.
23. Regulation of Emotion may be
implemented by certain brain
regions
The pre-frontal cortex (PFC)
• Orbitofrontal PFC
• Dorsolateral PFC
• Anterior cingulate cortex
The limbic/para-limbic structures
• Amygdala
• Hypothalamus
26. Can lead to changes in
behavior
and emotional reactions
Can inhibit
adaptive
behavior
27. The nicotine molecule is shaped like a
neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
Acetylcholine and its receptors are
involved in many functions, including
mood, appetite, memory, and more.
Nicotine also activates areas of the brain
that are involved in producing feelings of
pleasure and reward.
Recently, scientists discovered that
nicotine raises the levels of dopamine.
28. The shape, size, and chemical structure of
methamphetamine and dopamine are similar.
Dopamine is sometimes called the pleasure
neurotransmitter.
Methamphetamine is able to fool neurons into taking it up
just like they would dopamine.
Methamphetamine causes that neuron to release lots of
dopamine, creating an extra sense of pleasure.
Eventually these pleasurable effects stop. They are
followed by unpleasant feelings called a "crash“ that often
leads a person to use more of the drug.
If a person continues to use methamphetamine, he will
have a difficult time feeling pleasure from anything, and
this effect can last a long time
29.
30. One region of the brain that contains A lot of THC receptors is
The hippocampus, which processes memory.
When THC attaches to receptors
In the hippocampus, it weakens
Short-term memory.
The hippocampus also
Communicates with other brain
Regions that process new
Information into long-term
Memory.
In the brain, under the influence of
Marijuana, new information may
Never register - and may be lost
From memory.
THC also influences emotions,
Probably by acting on A region of
The brain called the limbic system.
Editor's Notes
Emotional Exploration. A relaxation exercise that is basically progressive
relaxation, but adds instruction about noticing their feelings. Once they are in a
relaxed state, ask them to turn their attention toward any physical sensations
linked to emotions. Sometimes it is helpful to use a metaphor such as “fishing”;
visualize casting a lure and waiting to see what rises to the surface. Use any
metaphor common in the local culture that would relate to quiet exploration.
Learn about emotions as a neurological reality and how they are
connected to the neurobiology of addiction. Learn the importance of identifying,
managing and expressing feelings for recovery success.
Before check-in, remind the participants that they need to use a
descriptive feeling word. Joke with them that if they have been consistently
vague about their feelings, they are not going to have any more chances to do
that. The check-in must include specific information about their current feelings –
perhaps insights they discovered during Emotional Exploration. Always include
check-in about most recent drug use and recovery activity attendance.
Participants should locate their Continuum and Four Characteristic
handouts. With the handouts face down, see if the group can collaborate and
remember all four of the characteristics. Each person should come up with one
until all four have been reached. Ask them if anybody has changed her mind
about where she is on the drug relationship continuum. Have each participant
locate her relationship with alcohol, if they have not done so already.
This activity uses multi-colored yarn. Have participants hold the yarn and
clip it off so their piece is about 2-3 feet long. Each participant should tie the two
ends in a knot. Have them make a ‘Cat’s Cradle’ or another type of knot to
represent their personal tangle of various emotions. Talk about how on a bad
day, they get more and more twisted (twist your own yarn while describing this).
The resulting knot may feel overwhelming. If we struggle and tug at the knot it
gets worse. If we ignore it, there it will sit until we are ready to deal with it. It is
necessary to untangle the knot and separate the strands in order to use the
feelings. In today’s presentation, we will learn how feelings can be useful, but
must be untangled before we can effectively harness their power. The power of
emotion is huge – they will understand why after the presentation. Have them
toss the instructor’s knot around while discussing this metaphor as a group.
Tell them to keep that piece of string as a reminder to untangle their
emotions. If they are having a hard day, then it’s time to stop and separate the
strands. Show them the Seven Emotions for Addiction Treatment chart and let
them know you will explain it during the presentation after break.
Robert Plutchik considered there to be eight primary emotions – anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy. Plutchik proposed that these ‘basic’ emotions are biologically primitive and have evolved in order to increase the reproductive fitness of the animal. Plutchik argues for the primacy of these emotions by showing each to be the trigger of behavior with high survival value, such as the way fear inspires the fight-or-flight response.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Plutchik
Important introduction to this presentation: Explain you are going to try to
respect their intelligence, and at the same time appreciate that they are just
starting to clear their heads from using drugs or alcohol for quite a while. This
presentation is interesting but also contains a lot of information. If they start to
feel overwhelmed, just review their Seven Emotions handout.
You are going to talk about the actual biology of the brain. Let them know
that it’s not important that they remember specific names of the brain parts, only
the major concepts. If they don’t understand something, make a big question
mark on their notes page. Come back to those questions later or immediately
during the presentation.
Emotional Education is a fairly unique approach in the Recovering
Together program based on very recent research. They may never have been
introduced to this information in any other treatment program or in the media.
Make sure you leave plenty of time for the discussion questions.
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